ITV News deputy political editor Anushka Asthana has the latest on the Tory leadership contest as the TalkTV debate ends early A Tory leadership debate hosted by TalkTV and The Sun ended dramatically midway through when presenter Kate McCann collapsed on air. Just over halfway through Tuesday’s clash between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, a loud crash in the studio interrupted proceedings. Mrs Truss looked visibly worried and could be heard saying ‘oh my god’ as she left the stage. The foreign secretary looked visibly worried and was heard saying “oh my god” as she left the stage. After the outage, TalkTV went dramatically off the air. Programming resumed a few minutes later, but the broadcaster dropped host Ian Collins instead of returning to the discussion. TalkTV said Ms McCann was “fine” but the debate would not continue on Tuesday night. He was due to appear alongside The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole but tested positive for Covid-19 earlier on Tuesday. After confirming the debate would not resume, Mr Sunak said it was “good news” that Ms McCann was on the mend. Want a quick and special update on the biggest news? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out what you need to know He tweeted: “It was a great conversation and I can’t wait to be grilled by you again soon!” Ms Truss said she was “relieved” to hear Ms McCann was well, but also “very sorry that such a good conversation had to end”. economy. Ms Truss said it was “morally wrong” to raise taxes during a cost-of-living crisis, but Mr Sunak quickly hit back, saying it was “morally wrong” to pile more debt on future generations. Mr Sunak also said it was “perfectly reasonable” to ask the biggest companies to pay “a bit more” tax because they received taxpayer-funded support during the pandemic. Associate political editor Anushka Asthana gives an overview of the rest of the debate “They will still pay a very generous rate of tax compared to most other countries,” he added. But Ms Truss, who said she would scrap the planned 7pm to 9pm corporation tax rise, said: “I’m not talking about cutting corporation tax, I’m talking about not raising corporation tax.” Mr Sunak’s policies would make the UK less competitive and push the country into recession, he warned. The two also clashed over the rise in national insurance, introduced by Mr Sunak to help pay for the NHS and social care. Mrs Truss said she would scrap the increase in national insurance and use general taxation to fund the NHS. Political Correspondent Carl Dinnen on how the leadership candidates fared during the debate The two Tory leadership candidates were certainly starting to try to be nicer to each other this evening. Rishi Sunak – who was in such aggressive form in last night’s debate – hadn’t interrupted Liz Truss once by the time this evening’s event was cancelled. What hasn’t changed is the central argument about economics. It was everywhere. When Sunak said “Happy Birthday” to Truss (now 47) he quickly started talking about the economy. When she responded by saying she had lots of papers and cake, that also became a point for her financial plan. In other matters it may be more difficult to tell the two apart. Both want NHS reform and support fracking. And all this is a problem for Sunak. If the polls are correct (which his team disputes) then he needs another selling point to get back into this race. Because the ones he has don’t seem to do the job.
